Project work

Project work is the best way to practice what you have learnt from the subjects. The purpose of including  project work in the M.B.A programme is to provide you an opportunity to investigate a problem applying management concepts in scientific manner. It enables you to apply your conceptual knowledge in a practical situation and to learn the art of conducting a study in a systematic way and presenting its findings in a clear and lucid fashion.

As a budding manager you will be constantly seeking information to base your decisions. How well you collect, synthesize and make the data meaningful, is what you learn through this process.

A project is a scientific and systematic study of real issue or a problem intended to be resolved using management concepts. The problem can be big or small. The problem should be picked up from the specialization that you will be choosing. The essential requirement of a project is that it should scientific collection, analysis and interpretation of data leading to valid conclusions.

The questions that you should ask yourself before selecting a project

• Will the implementation of the project bring about an improvement in the present status of an activity and can this improvement be quantified?

• Does the project have underlying management principle, frame work or model based on which the data is collected, analyzed and arguments developed?

• Is the project idea applicable in other similar situation?

• Does the project report take into factual data, which is relevant to the particular situation?

The first step of the project work is to choose a suitable topic for study. This choice will be entirely personal emerging from your area of interest. There can be more than one topic in each area. When faced with a wide choice. A discussion with your classmates or your supervisor can help you in narrowing down your choice through elimination. While selecting a topic, you have to take into consideration the organization you work in and the opportunity you have at your command to generate relevant data.

The organization chosen for a project should be given lot of thinking about. The organization that is chosen should be a well-known company. It becomes very important because in the job interview you will be asked questions about your project work. This is because project is the only original work that you would have undertaken in the entire two year M.B.A course.

Some dos and don’ts while doing the project working at the organization:

• Always be punctual. Remember punctuality is a hygiene factor. If you are punctual no one comments about it,. But if you are late it would definitely be commented about

• Dress appropriately. It the employees wear formal dress, you too dress formally. When you are in Rome do as Romans do.

• Do not indulge in office gossip. Remember you are there only for two months.

• Use office resources carefully and do not take office stationery to your house.

• Be careful about what information can be collected and what can’t be collected. Always take permission about what information can be used. Remember once some information is used and subsequently it becomes a part of a a project report it comes into public domain and information is open for public consumption.

• Please give small token of appreciation to your guide for all the help and cooperation. It can be a small pen or a small table top item but it would be appreciated. Also do not forget to send a thank you e-mail followed by a formal letter of thanks signed by your HOD or by your college guide.